Starship X-15 Read online

  One night while I am feeling particularly randy, I try the fresh root of one. I have already dried a few of these roots, but I want to start the tasting with the fresh. It is earthy, and slightly bitter, but palatable as far as taste goes. I do get some gastric disturbance within ten minutes, and then even diarrhea. It passes before I go to sleep, and when I wake to pee, my glowing light is brightly filling the room. I wake Rick quietly, and he is amazed at how bright I am.

  “I bet the dried root is even stronger.”

  He cocks his head. “Because the berries were?”

  “Yup. Now let’s get it on, baby, come on now! Give me that.”

  Rick tries the dried root of the glow plant the next night, and his bright glow wakes me and the baby up. We can even see the glow with the lights on now. There seem to be no adverse effects from the use of the plant, so far, and we both love the cleansing, energizing feeling of it, so I guess we might just be addicted.

  “We have to quit using the glow plant baby, for at least a month.” I inform him.

  “Why? I feel great. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine, but I think we may be addicted to it. I’m worried.”

  “Oh… well why can’t we just do a week then?”

  “Alright, so we now know it is psychologically addicting, but let’s see about physiologically.” I give him my ‘get real’ look.

  Rick looks down, and eventually nods agreement.

  I miss my next period, and I realize that I am going to have a whole herd of freaking kids, my uterus will be hanging out by the time I’m done for; dying from childbirth probably. Great. I’m not going to say anything to Rick yet though, not until my next time, just in case this is residual from the pregnancy. So until then I have to cut him off from sex too. I can’t be pregnant again! It’s too soon.

  I abstain from the glow plant past the month we agreed on, maybe it has something to do with it as well. Rick is bummed out, but I help him out in other ways. He is very appreciative, and even has built me my own compound bow and arrows. It’s a tight, powerful bow, and is very accurate once I get the hang of it. This doesn’t take me long. Then it happens! I am so relieved. My period came back right on schedule! I tell Rick the great news.

  “I thought I was pregnant again babe, no lie. Imagine that.” His eyes get wide. “Then I had my period today!” I hug him with squeals. He picks me up and spins me around.

  Next I tell him that maybe, just maybe that the glow plant might have some contraceptive properties, and I explain why I think so. He picks me up again spinning me around.

  “Oh yes! I hope so!” he shouts.

  “Hey,” I interject into his celebration, “this doesn’t mean that you can just go all nuts in me, you know.”

  Rick sets me down gently, and kisses me with sweet caring love very softly. “I love you Devon Stanley, and I always will.” He assures me.

  “No matter what?”

  “No matter.” He is confident.

  “Even if I keep this baby weight on my ass and thighs?”

  He smacks my rear, and grabs a hold, jiggling a cheek. “Oh yeah.” He says with his lusty voice, the one that whispers sweet obscenities in my ear during loving.

  “Then hit it, don’t quit it mister.” I invite him, and he greedily obliges. God I am so fallen for this stud, this good man; the father of my child.

  I still want for Alicia too though, and I have her in my mind every day, and sometimes all day long. I won’t say that Rick is a poor substitute, because he is not poor by any measure, but it is like apples and oranges, and I prefer sweet oranges, although I will definitely eat an apple.

  I start eating the dried glow berries again, and so does Rick. I pleasure him often, since I can without getting knocked up again it seems, and he is so appreciative of this, I can easily tell he loves my pleasure, and me. The way he strokes my hair after we just finished, telling me how goddamned wonderful I am, and that he is actually glad to be lost in space with me. He says he wouldn’t have it any other way.

  I am so happy! I missed my period again, and that means the glow berries are probably indeed a contraceptive, for females anyhow. I tell Rick that he is free to ravage me, and boy does he! All damned night long, and I am loving it! Life here isn’t so bad after all.

  I can’t believe it is Haley’s first birthday already, at least by the solar year on my planet, around the sun that I have officially named Hobart’s Star. I have also named our settlement as Rick’s Landing. He laughed at this, so I know he likes it, just like I am fond of the name Devon’s Planet. Haley is walking already, though just barely, and her beautiful green eyes, and auburn hair are full of the wonder of life. She knows she is very much loved, by both of us; I can tell as her mother. Sometimes it’s like I can read her developing young mind. Very uncanny.

  Rick has decided to go for a two night exploration around the surrounding territory by himself, and I worry for him as he leaves. What if he doesn’t come back? So I demand to know his planned route, and even have him draw it out for me on one of the thick homemade sheets of paper I have made for Haley to color on when she gets older.

  He leaves the next morning before sunup, and then I go back in to the ship to tend to Haley’s needs, and wants. I have plenty of preserved food already, but I worry not for me; rather for my love. I need him, I want him, and I won’t live without him. Damn, I guess I have grown pretty close to my man.

  The next three days are nightmares for my mind. I keep seeing Rick hurt, or incapacitated out on a cold rocky hill. Then the evening of the third day I hear a voice shouting from across the lake, towards camp. I can’t make out the words, but it is Rick’s voice for sure. I stoke the fire, and start a stew in one of the raw hide bowls, of many now. All the very best of the preserved foods go into this welcome home my baby stew.

  It is a couple hours before he makes it into the settlement, and I greet him proudly holding his infant daughter to see him. Haley is beside herself with joy at seeing her papa. I laugh, and hug and kiss my man. Next I feed him well as he holds and tickles his baby girl. Then we retire to the ship, and put Haley to bed. He takes me with urgency and forceful passion, yet gentle enough to really enjoy, before he tells me of his trek.

  “I had a freaking trip of a journey babe. You’re not going to believe it actually.” He chuckles.

  “So tell me already!” I urge, laying in his muscular arms, and stroking his masculine chest hair. An apple is still tasty, I don’t care what anyone says, even orange lovers; like me.

  “The first day I just hiked my ass off, getting up to the higher mountains above us, so I could get a better lay of the land.”

  “You have the lay of the land right here in your arms, buster.”

  He squeezes my breast, and laughs. “Yeah I do babe.” He is sure, I can tell.

  “So I got a pretty good view of what’s around us alright, besides the view we got when we got the rainbow salt.”

  “I liked that trip baby, it was good.” I giggle with lusty thoughts.

  He rubs me real personal like, and it is on again, round two.

  Soon I am still reeling, and quivering in his arms again as we lay in his couch, all sticky like afterwards.

  “So finish the story stud man.” I insist.

  “Oh, yeah. The second day, or night rather, I was up pretty far, camping on an outcropping of rock at the edge of the high forest. The trees are much more like Ponderosa Pine up higher. Anyhow I saw a bunch of those red glowing lights, like eight of them, all over the place in the far distant lower reaches out there, all separate like.”

  “Oh shit. I don’t like those things, whatever they are.” I complain.

  “Still, we will probably encounter one of them at some point, closer I mean.”

  “I understand.” I am spent, but I grab his sex again, and get him uncontrollable once more, I missed him fiercely. We wake the baby even, with our grunts of pure satisfaction. God I love this man! How strong he is, how viral he is, and certainly
how horny he is. Not to mention endowed very nicely. His practiced skill is what really does it though.

  “Rick, you’re pretty damn good at making me see god, so I assume you’ve had a few girlfriends in your past that taught you. Am I right?” I have to ask, afterwards.

  “Actually… I am married, and have three children babe.” He says without any obvious pride.

  “Oh my god! What?” I end up screaming that last part.

  “Yeah, or I used to be anyhow. Now, I am dead to them all.” He begins to cry.

  My heart is swelling, and it isn’t good! Oh god, no! Shit! I have to leave the ship right freaking now, and I crawl through the damned tunnel to the entrance pit that Rick had built a rain cover over. It is fairly cold outside, but my tears made me crawl out into it.

  It isn’t long at all until I hear his voice again, he’s followed me out.

  “Devon, I am far more in love with you, than I ever was with my previous wife.” He is slow, and careful with his words, and then his warm caring arms embrace me. I fall into his chest crying.

  “I had a love too, and I’ll never see her again, but you have three other children… oh god baby. I’m so sorry for your loss.” My tears soak his hairy, muscular chest, and he strokes my body with soft love.

  “We have each other, and Haley, baby. That is more than enough for me. You are the loves of my life here and now.” He declares with tears of his own.

  We cry each other to sleep on his couch, with both of us glowing soul light.

  I know that his family is long gone, who knows how many light years away; now Haley and I are his family, and always will be. Also I know that he loves me, and our baby, just as much, if not more than his lost family. I know we are the ones who are lost, but I have found him. My soul mate, my ultimate partner in life, and love. Damn, apples are good.

  We have really brought our small settlement to life, and have so many projects to nurse. Haley is going to celebrate her third birthday in a couple of days, so Rick and I have been planning all kinds of fun. She is fairly fluent in Basic English now, and she loves learning all kinds of things. Her favorite thing though is to color with the dyed chalk like mineral Rick had found, and even some limited colors of crayons that he fashioned from tree sap and some of the colored mineral cakes we still have a bunch of. That’s the only salt we have right now, and I wish for a good straight up pure sea salt. The other flavors in the mineral deposits of the rainbow salt are sometimes too prevalent.

  We are still very much into using the glow berries and roots, as they take sex to a whole new ultimate spiritual level. My soul, and Rick’s are forever joined in this way. When we orgasm together, our glow is sometimes blinding. I have a suspicion that there must be some price to pay for this unbridled sexual glory and fulfillment. I know Rick can’t stop, his virility is such that I know he is going to have me, and how! I can’t wait.

  Haley has been walking for almost two years, local time now. She is my every-thing, I can’t get enough of the precocious girl. Neither can her dad. I think she realizes this too, and plays it up… look at me people! I do look at her, and I love her. Sure, our life around the settlement, and the ship can sometimes be boring, but then Haley will do something which has the both of us in stitches for a while. Simple little things, but we see the utter humor of discovery in her precious green eyes, my eyes.

  Spring comes with warm welcome from us again, and we see the green life begin all around us once more. Soon insects are buzzing, many types that we hadn’t seen before, or noticed anyhow. It isn’t another month before Haley is running, somewhat, through the grassy fields of our settlement. We wake up one morning to a huge herd of large, very shaggy beasts that have invaded our grassy clearing. They look like a Yak or something very similar, yet with squashed, non-protruding snouts. A very strange heaving sound is made by them, and resonates in our camp. Haley is in the ship for the whole incursion, and Rick tells me he wants to kill one.

  “What the hell for man?” I object with haste.

  “See that heavy, shaggy hide? That is why. We need more pelts, and bigger ones to make what we will need. Those blankets are just about toast.”

  “So much for the Prime Directive then.” I hit him with the same old argument, but I still believe in it in spades.

  “I am willing to face the music to take care of my family babe, it’s on me. You have no guilt in this. I’d fry in hell before I let that happen.” He then kisses me so sweetly, that I begin to cry.

  “I’m sorry for the killing babe, but we really need it.” He implores.

  “No, it’s not that lover, I’m just touched by your sweet love baby. Go and kill one, a weak old one. The pelt will still be good.”

  “What made you cry then? He asks with his heart on his sleeve, I see it.

  I lie, and tell him, “Because I sure don’t want to see you fry in hell Rick, for one thing.” I am really crying because of his sweet love towards me, but I can’t let him know that. Then he would have too much power over me.

  Again Rick can’t even begin to eat the cooked meat, and so we simply have a very big, shaggy hide to clean, and cure, not to mention to soften up. Boy that is some work, holy crap! My arms want to fall off all week long that he and I share the chore of pulling the hide over smooth poles of wood that Rick had set up just for this fun. Many hours of pure sweaty working of the torso, and leg muscles. I am already pretty cut again after having Haley, and now I revel more in conditioning. That’s the spirit girl! WORK!

  I watch as Rick gives Haley the two big flag like streamers that we had painstakingly made, and dyed with the brightest colors we have, into her hands. She runs bouncing across the grass fields screaming and giggling with delight, and pure joy. God I love her, and him. He sits next to me and hugs me with the same joy our daughter is expressing.

  “She loves it babe.” I say as I lean into his broad chest. Rick has gotten so much stronger, and cut since we’ve been here. I too am lean and trim, but I still have my curves, as he reminds me nearly every night with ever so hot passion. I know he isn’t even close to tiring of me, and neither am I of him. He just gets more sexually appealing every freaking day it seems. Maybe these glow berries that we are constantly consuming have something to do with our insatiable virility, but honestly I don’t mind one bit.

  I still don’t have my periods at all, from the berries no doubt, and this frees my lover and I to go for it hard, and heavy. So we do. I encourage his lust, and to take me every way possible. With glowing spiritual light and ecstasy we seemingly defile each other, but it is honestly nothing like that at all. We explore and fulfill all our wants, desires, and love thereby. I belong to Rick, my body is his firstly, and then my mind. My soul I share with abandon. So too is he with me.

  The seasons are much milder than many places on Earth, especially at this altitude above sea level. Spring quickly warms to summer, and around we go again. After four full changes of the seasons, we think we have it figured out.

  My daughter’s fifth birthday was a blast. She loved it as we did too. Her daddy made a blazing arrangement of branches that spelled out ‘Haley’, and he danced around singing her name as it burned to her delight. I also joined in the silly singing.

  For dinner I made another epic stew, as that is what we all like best, by consensus. This time I put three crushed glow berries into the concoction. It is the first time Haley has had the berries, or any of the plant. That night, I wake Rick and we see that our daughter is glowing a brightly golden color. She has it all over Rick and I; as far as brilliance and color from the plant’s actions. We don’t wake her though, as we don’t want to worry her. Poor girl is going to have a hard enough life once we are dead and gone.

  Late summer before the winter of Haley’s sixth birthday, and something very strange is happening. The lake is entirely covered with an algae bloom, overnight! The ‘eesh’ in the river are gone too, and we noticed that we couldn’t see or hear any birds. We don’t hear any of the usually very slight
insect sounds either. This goes on for two weeks, and then the algae is gone overnight; same as it appeared. It takes another week for the birds, and other animals to return, along with the ‘eesh’ finally as well. We really depend upon them for all of our protein, and when they left, we worried.

  I’m pretty amazed at Rick. I have tried several times to instigate an argument with him, and he absolutely will not partake in this. Not to complain, but instead I have realization of his profound respect, and love for me. At first this did bother me though, because I thought he was just being a wuss. He’s not by any measure, that’s for sure.

  About four days after the ‘eesh’ come back we all three get sick for the first time here. The symptoms of each of us are the same, a high fever, and some muscle soreness. I have two basic choices of medicines to give; those from Earth, being aspirin and ibuprofen, and the local plants. I try ibuprofen first, but it just relieves some of the soreness, and does nothing to knock the fever down. Next I try some glow berry tea, and amazingly the fever is totally gone within several hours. It doesn’t come back the next day either. We don’t know what caused it, but it seems to be related to the ‘eesh’ and animals going away during the algae bloom on the lake. Regardless, we have found the cure for it, and maybe other aliments too.

  Chapter 9